Fox rings the victory bell

With the competition’s four most-watched scripted programs all in reruns, Fox captured the top five spots among prime-time shows, leading to a second consecutive sweeping victory in the weekly ratings race.

For the second week in a row, Fox got a 1-2-3 finish from its three “American Idol” broadcasts, Nielsen Media Research reported Tuesday.

Fox was also able to claim a victory for the premiere of the drama “The Wedding Bells,” which won its 9-10 p.m. Wednesday time slot among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group targeted by Fox, ABC and NBC and coveted by advertisers.

However, “The Wedding Bells” was second among all viewers with 12.34 million, behind a rerun of CBS’ “Criminal Minds,” which had 13.68 million.

The premiere of the talent show “Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll” drew record viewership to the CW for the Tuesday 9-10 p.m. time slot, among total viewers, its targeted 18-34 age group and several other categories.

After finishing second behind ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson” three times in the previous four weeks, the “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” finished first among the network nightly newscasts, averaging 8.99 million viewers, with Williams anchoring from Iraq for four days.

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*--* Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (March 5-11) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 283.5 million potential viewers in the U.S. ages 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions. Program Net- work View- ers Program Net- work View- ers

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*--* 1 American Idol (Wed.) FOX 28.55 2 American Idol (Tue.) FOX 27.95 3 American Idol (Thu.) FOX 27.52 4 House (Tue.) FOX 24.40 5 Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? FOX 20.66

6 Deal or No Deal (Mon.) NBC 18.39 7 Without a Trace CBS 17.53 8 CSI CBS 15.45 Cold Case CBS 15.45 10 Heroes NBC 14.90

11 Two and a Half Men CBS 14.55 12 CSI: Miami CBS 14.33 13 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 13.95 14 Survivor: Fiji CBS 13.81 15 Criminal Minds CBS 13.68

16 24 FOX 13.04 17 Deal or No Deal (Sun.) NBC 12.91 18 Rules of Engagement CBS 12.51 19 Lost ABC 12.45 NCIS CBS 12.45

21 Wedding Bells (Wed.) FOX 12.34 22 CSI: NY CBS 11.79 23 Shark CBS 11.17 24 “Fox Nextel Cup Winners Circle” FOX 10.63 25 60 Minutes CBS 10.30

26 Numb3rs CBS 10.29 27 Amazing Race 11 CBS 9.82 28 Prison Break FOX 9.72 29 Close to Home CBS 9.62 30 Supernanny ABC 9.58

31 Las Vegas NBC 9.24 32 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.11 33 The Simpsons FOX 8.79 34 The Class CBS 8.72 35 Medium NBC 8.66

36 How I Met Your Mother CBS 8.56 37 48 Hours Mystery (Tue.) CBS 8.46 38 Grey’s Anatomy (Thu.) ABC 8.45 39 1 vs. 100 NBC 8.44 40 Jericho CBS 8.10

41 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.08 42 Family Guy FOX 8.05 43 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Sun.) ABC 8.00 44 Wife Swap (Mon.) ABC 7.97 45 Desperate Housewives ABC 7.74

46 The Unit CBS 7.68 47 According to Jim (9 p.m.) ABC 7.55 48 Apprentice 6 NBC 7.46 49 Law & Order NBC 7.41 50 48 Hours Mystery (Sat.) CBS 7.07

51 20/20 ABC 7.05 Law & Order: Criminal Intent NBC 7.05 53 The Black Donnellys NBC 6.88 54 Primetime: The Outsiders ABC 6.80 55 Ghost Whisperer CBS 6.71

56 Dateline: NBC (Tue.) NBC 6.59 57 Grease: You’re the One That I Want NBC 6.46 America’s Most Wanted FOX 6.46 59 The Winner (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.39 60 Men in Trees ABC 6.37

Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.37 62 In Case of Emergency ABC 6.06 63 Ugly Betty ABC 5.96 64 Dateline: NBC (Wed.) NBC 5.93 65 Scrubs NBC 5.83

66 Boston Legal ABC 5.80 67 George Lopez ABC 5.79 68 La Fea Mas Bella (Tue.) UNI 5.78 69 Cops (8 p.m.) FOX 5.71 70 Dateline: NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.62

71 The Winner (9:30 p.m.) FOX 5.56 72 According to Jim (8:30 p.m.) ABC 5.55 73 America’s Funniest Home Videos (Tue.) ABC 5.53 74 Crimetime Saturday (8 p.m.) CBS 5.48 75 La Fea Mas Bella (Thu.) UNI 5.42

Crimetime Saturday (9 p.m.) CBS 5.42 77 My Name Is Earl NBC 5.39 78 “The Italian Job” NBC 5.38 79 House (Fri.) FOX 5.35 Brothers & Sisters ABC 5.35

81 La Fea Mas Bella (Mon.) UNI 5.29 82 La Fea Mas Bella (Wed.) UNI 5.22 83 30 Rock (9:30 p.m.) NBC 5.15 84 What About Brian ABC 4.85 The Office (10 p.m.) NBC 4.85

86 The Office (8:30 p.m.) NBC 4.67 87 La Fea Mas Bella (Fri.) UNI 4.60 88 Wife Swap (Fri.) ABC 4.57 89 Gilmore Girls CW 4.47 90 America’s Top Model 2 (Wed.) CW 4.46

91 Grey’s Anatomy (Fri.) ABC 4.40 92 Friday Night Smackdown CW 4.34 Mundo de Fieras (Tue.) UNI 4.34 94 Mundo de Fieras (Wed.) UNI 4.11 95 Mundo de Fieras (Thu.) UNI 3.95

30 Rock (10:30 p.m.) NBC 3.95 97 Pussycat Dolls Presents: The Search for the Next CW 3.93 Doll (Tue.) 98 “The Sixth Sense” ABC 3.81 99 Pussycat Dolls Presents: The Search for the Next CW 3.70 Doll (Wed.) 100 Mundo de Fieras (Mon.) UNI 3.68

101 The Wedding Bells (Fri.) FOX 3.62 102 Duelo de Pasiones (Tue.) UNI 3.53 103 Don Francisco Presenta UNI 3.44 104 Mundo de Fieras (Fri.) UNI 3.43 105 Bailando Boda Suenos UNI 3.41

106 Ver Para Creer (Tue.) UNI 3.21 107 Duelo de Pasiones (Fri.) UNI 3.17 108 Duelo de Pasiones (Thu.) UNI 3.03 109 Duelo de Pasiones (Wed.) UNI 3.02 110 Aqui y Ahora UNI 2.99

111 Duelo de Pasiones (Mon.) UNI 2.93 112 Cristina UNI 2.81 113 Sabado Gigante UNI 2.72 114 Smallville CW 2.52 115 Casos Vida UNI 2.43

116 America’s Top Model 2 (Sun.) CW 2.26 117 Everybody Hates Chris CW 2.16 118 Girlfriends CW 1.96 119 All of Us CW 1.86 120 7th Heaven CW 1.82

121 Supernatural CW 1.81 122 Casos Familia UNI 1.73 123 The Game CW 1.71 124 Hora Pico UNI 1.67 125 Pussycat Dolls Presents: The Search for the Next CW 1.42 Doll (Sun.)

126 Zorro (Thu.) TEL 1.17 127 Zorro (Wed.) TEL 1.16 128 Dame Chocolate (Mon.) TEL 1.13 129 Zorro (Fri.) TEL 1.11 Zorro (Mon.) TEL 1.11

131 Marina (Mon.) TEL 1.09 132 Marina (Tue.) TEL 1.06 133 Zorro (Tue.) TEL 1.04 134 Dame Chocolate (Thu.) TEL 1.00 Marina (Thu.) TEL 1.00

136 Dame Chocolate (Wed.) TEL 0.95 137 Dame Chocolate (Tue.) TEL 0.89 138 Marina (Fri.) TEL 0.88 Marina (Wed.) TEL 0.88 140 Dame Chocolate (Fri.) TEL 0.83

141 Decisiones (Tue.) TEL 0.78 142 Cine Millonario TEL 0.66

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*--* Network averages Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season. Network Last week Season to date FOX 14.11 10.09

CBS 10.76 12.94

NBC 7.93 9.52

ABC 6.76 9.94

UNI 3.69 3.61

CW 2.99 3.27

TEL 0.82 0.84

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